Date: Sat, 26 Nov 1994 22:05:13 +0100 (NFT)
From: Bj|rn Skolander
FROM DEVIANTS TO SAME-SEX PARENTS - 100 YEARS OF LESBIAN LOVE IN SWEDEN
Source: Kom Ut 5/94 Greger Eman
On November 18, 1894, nineteen year old Klara Johanson fell into the
arms of twentyfive year old Lydia Wahlstroem for the first time. This
event was the beginning of passionate romance, that should last for the next
four years.
The relation between Klara and Lydia marks the first documented evidence in
Sweden of a relationship between two women, which did not exclude the sexual
dimension. Infatuation among women had been socially accepted in Sweden
since the 18th century (the Danish researcher Karin Lu:tzen has described
such relations in Denmark in: Hvad Hjertet Begaerer. Kvinders kaerlighed til
kvinder 1825-1985. Tiderne Skifter. 1986.), but by living in a sexual
relationship Johanson and Wahlstroem passed the bounds of accepted
behaviour. They became outsiders and deviants.
The history of lesbian identity does not run parallel to gay men's progress.
Women were making their own way because their social, financial and
ideological reality differed from that of the men.
The identity of gay Swedish men is said to have had its break-through in
1907, caused by a number of public scandals. (1907 is also the year when the
term homosexuality appears in Swedish newspapers for the first time.)
Whereas the female homosexual identity got its break-through not until 1920.
The period between 1884-1920 is a period of transition in the history of the
modern Swedish lesbian. During this period women's struggle for human rights
reached its peak. First of all for their right to vote, but for women who
loved other women the solidarity in the women-only-collectives of that
period was of equal importance to their personal growth.
Between 1920 and 1972 the female homosexual identity did not change
remarkably. The consequences of being a deviant, pathological and invisible
member of society were the main ingredients of lesbian's lives. The
noticeable changes appears to be more quantitative than qualitative. The
number of women living in same-sex relations grows.
One important event, however, is the biography of the author Karin Boye
(1900-1941) published in 1950 by Margit Abenius. This made Karin Boye's
homosexuality publicly known, and from now on Boye became an inseparable
part of many lesbian's (and gay men's) lives. During this period even other
persons and events made way for future changes: Freud, Radclyffe Hall's "The
Well of Loneliness", the decriminalization of homosexuality in Sweden in
1944, Kinsey, RFSL (The Swedish Federation for Gay and Lesbian Rights) was
founded in 1950, sexliberalism, debate of equality between the sexes, etc.
In the early 1970s the women's movement had grown strong again, and we can
notice a change of perspective. The homosexual woman becomes a "lesbian".
Many lesbians were involved in the women's movement, and feminist ideology
was strongly influencing the public discourse of homosexuality.
Finally Greger Eman ends his article by describing how the perspective has
changed once more from the 1990s, when the role of lesbian feminism has been
displaced by the interest in other aspect of lesbian life: such as the
butch-femme-debate, lesbian and gay parentage, s/m and other sexual
variants. The 90s has become the period of lesbian pluralism.
Klare Johanson. 1875-1948. Author and literary critic.
Lydia Wahlstroem. 1869-1954. Historian, author and lay preacher.
This text was typed by on November 26 1994,
in Uppsala - the city where Klara and Lydia fell in love one hundred years
ago.